1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to portable devices with remote server access capability, and more particularly, to a portable device that can access a remote server using an ambiguity string.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The mobile phone is a ubiquitous feature of modern life. Fierce competition on the market means that manufacturers are constantly developing new features in order to gain an edge. The mobile phone user therefore has a large variety of options available to him/her, and will often select those that provide him or her with the greatest convenience of usage.
Most mobile phone users are familiar with the traditional 12-key keyboard. As more than one letter/symbol is allocated to each key, a user must utilize a multi-tap input method in order to generate a desired keyword. A number of input methods are currently in use by conventional mobile phones. The multi-tap with timeout method cycles through symbols each time a key is pressed. If, for example, a user wishes to enter the letter ‘h’, they will have to tap the ‘4’ key twice. Furthermore, if a time between tapping the key exceeds a certain limit, the user will erroneously enter ‘gg’ rather than the desired ‘h’. The long press method cycles through symbols as long as a key is held down. Each time the key is de-pressed a currently displayed symbol will be selected. To select ‘h’, for example, the ‘4’ key must be held down until ‘h’ appears on the display screen, and the ‘4’ key is then released/de-pressed in order to select the symbol ‘h’. The two-key method utilizes the number keys to indicate which symbol a user wishes to choose. For example, when entering ‘h’ the user will press ‘42’ as ‘h’ is the second symbol corresponding to the ‘4’ key. The multi-press with following key method uses a non-number key (for example, an arrow key) to select a symbol. For example, if a user wishes to enter ‘h’ they must press ‘44’ then press the arrow key to select the currently displayed ‘h’. Most symbols therefore require at least two taps of the keyboard in order to be entered, causing the user some inconvenience.
One solution to this problem is to enter a desired word using a single-tap method, and then to search the phone database for a suitable match, as in predictive texting, for example. Predictive texting uses probability to determine which word a user wishes to enter according to the order of the keys pressed. An ambiguity string corresponding to single-tapped keys is sent to the database of the mobile phone/portable device where a match is searched for and generated (if found). For example, ‘43’ is most likely to correspond to the word ‘he’, and therefore that is the first word that will be generated by the portable device database. This method, however, is dependent on the database being located in the portable device itself. If the database is a remote database, for example an Internet server, then this single-tap method will not work.